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thatonebirdwrites · 4 months

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Answering Questions for Fun

20 Questions More

This is a deeper and more detailed version of the 20 questions for AO3 fanfic writers.

I yanked the questions from someone in the supercorp fandom. I forget who. I never get tagged since I'm not really well known writer yet (I'm still a tumblr newbie!), so I'm doing this just for funsies and because I like answering questions.

I will be answering this for the supercorp and korrasami fandoms. My works are here (though I do one-shots on tumblr sometimes).

1) How do you keep getting ideas for your ship / fandom?

By existing, reading, listening, writing, watching things, staring at the sky and watching the clouds drift by. Seriously, my ADHD's superpower is generating ideas. So I have way too many of them, and I have a note in my Scrivener projects with all the ideas. If anyone needs more ideas, I'll spin out so many. lol

2) Which authors inspire you in your fandom, and why are they so freakishly good?

So for the Korrasami fandom, that would be @korrasamibottles for their fantastic oneshots, Progman for one of the best post-series fics I've ever read (seriously, the Asami Sato of RRU is awesome), Shigan for some amazing korrasami oneshots, FuzziFox for an adorable and action-y AU where Asami goes south with Korra, lovedeathcats for the best Indiana Jones AU ever, RainbowRosie for a great AU where bending has vanished, paxbanana's Place in the World is an interesting AU take on Korrasami. @asamiontop's Modern world AU is a must read (she also has some great supercorp one-shots). For supercorp? @jazzfordshire has exquisitely written fics, everything @fazedlight writes is gold, @snowydragonscave's oneshots are adorable, @mycatismyeditor has some great AU's that really dig into the characters, @ekingston has some of the best written AU's I've ever read, @karalovesallthegirls has the most hilarious fics ever (Mime fic), robie's AUs are some of the best slow burn I've read, TheUnforgivingMinute wrote a fantastic spookysupercorp, @coffeeshib floored me with their gorgeous prose, @rustingcat not only does amazing art but the fics are such a great slow burn, @chaotic-super's back to Krypton was absolutely goldmine of fun and digging into the lore of Krypton. I could go on. Let's just say I LOVE Y'all's fics. The above are the people who had the most impact on me personally. Where I learned the art of fanfic writing. Since I'm a science fiction writer, I tend toward creative writing techniques that don't always jive well in the fandom realm, so learning from others helps me refine my writing to use the least amount of words for the biggest impact possible. It's also great practice for my original fiction honestly.

3) Aside from the characters of your main ship, who are the characters you love to write?

I really love writing Sam Arias. Nia is also super fun to write, and writing Brainy and Lena arguing about science is always fun too. Alex is a littler harder for me to write (her snark is hard for me to capture), but she's a blast once I get in the right headspace for it. For Korrasami, I really love writing Jinora and Bolin. Asami considers both of them basically siblings at this point, and Korra does too actually. heh.

4) Are there pairings or tropes you know for sure you'd never write about? Which ones?

I will NEVER EVER writing Makorra - that is a clusterfuck I will never touch. Hell, it's why I didn't rewrite book 1 of TLOK for my Shared Moments series because I really didn't want to touch it at all. lol I just skipped to the six months after and started there. I'll NEVER write Lames or any relationship that features Mon-el. Nope. Not touching it. I prefer to write sapphic pairings for the main protagonists. Sure, side characters can have het pairings (like Brainy and Nia), but I won't write a fic with them as the focus. Other folks can do that.

5) What is your writing process and why is it cursed?

Step 1: Wake up, wash up, and get tea. Step 2. Cuddle the cat to prepare myself. Step 3: Put on my compression gloves and stretch my arms. Step 4: Put on the correct playlist (absolutely essential step otherwise it'll throw off the entire scene and then I have to start over.) Step 5: Try to avoid Tumblr. (Doesn't always work, this place is cursed I swear. lol) Step 6. Open Scrivener project (who am I kidding, these primary projects are always open on m computer). Write while my brain is cooperating. (30 to 40 minutes before I got to rest for 45 minutes then I can start writing again. Chronic illness sucks like that.) Step 7: realize I need to research something and lose two hours to that. Step 8: AO3 emailed me! Who commented this time! Oh noes, now I've fallen down the looking at the Internets.

The other thing I do is carry my journal everywhere to document everything and end up with some weird random poetry, drawings, and dialogue from people I overhear. Oh, and on bad brain days, I'll draw cursed images.

I also use Scrivener and go all haywire on all its features to a ridiculous extent. Like, I try to stuff ALL my outlines, research, scenes, into that Scrivener so it's all in one place, that way I don't forget anything. It makes for large projects. ha.

6) What is your favorite part of your writing process?

Incorporating my research into the story in subtle ways to fill out the world and immerse the reader more fully. It's fun to put some of this research in the end-notes for my fics on AO3. (The power AO3 gave us writers with those end-notes!!)

7) What’s the weirdest thing you’ve had to research for a fic?

Maturation of bird species and the DNA overlap with human beings to see if I can craft an alien species that is at least 90% DNA similar to humans but is more birdlike.

I looked up the absorption of chemicals through skin. (This is why I use duckduck go for anonymity for this sort of stuff. LOL)

8) Is there a particular writing rule you struggle with (grammar, spelling, tense, reality in general)?

Reality in general - ha. Seriously though, the chronic illness makes it really hard to concentrate and have energy for writing or really anything. The second thing I struggle with is I have an annoying habit of adapting my tenses to what I'd last read. So if the story I read was past-tense, I'll jump into my writing using past tense (which most of my stories is that tense, but there's two that aren't so that's when it gets annoying).

9) What was your hardest scene to write so far and why?

The hardest scene was the end of Book 3 for Shared Moments for the Korrasami series. Both Asami and Korra (due to the bond they forged by accident at Harmonic Convergence) are captured by Zaheer, so that was a brutally painful set of scenes. Full of pain, fighting, poisoning, and a struggle to survive. I wept through it honestly. Whew. Yikes. For Supercorp, the hardest scene was when Nia assists Lena with her dreams and memories of her birth mother. Those were so sad and I totally teared up writing them. It was also hard to sort out the best way to reveal details without giving too much away either. Since Nia's powers are a little all over the place too.

10) Have your characters ever done something you didn’t expect, changing your plot completely?

All the time! For the TLOK: Shared Moments series, Asami keeps surprising me, so I often have to sit down and remap her timeline, and it always enriches the entire series. For Supercorp, Nia keeps doing things that surprise me. She's like this chaotic good agent that adds in humor and twists that enrich the tale in subtle ways I think. There's many other surprising moments the characters do. That's half the fun! Seeing where the characters end up and if I need to adjust my plans. :D

11) If you could converse with any of the characters, who would it be and why?

That's a tie between Asami Sato and Lena Luthor honestly. But then I sort of think of them as basically the same person (Lena may be more neutral in temperament while Asami is chaotic good. Also, Asami isn't afraid to fly planes and crash them for Korra. Lena would prefer no flying. lol). I just wanna talk science with them. Oh and ask them about how in-love they are with Korra and Kara respectively. (Lena will try to deny it, but Asami will gush and admit it because she's a little more in touch with her feelings). I just love these two so much. :D

12) What are some of the tropes or themes that you find yourself returning to in your writing?

Healing journeys. I really enjoy writing healing from trauma, because I feel like it's so relevant for our times, and the characters never really get that in their series (well, Supergirl characters don't, and they really need it!).

The theme of chosen family is another theme I come to again and again. Partly due to how my life is -- my bio family is not healthy for me (outright abusive), so my chosen family is my real family. So I like to dig into those dynamics a lot.

I also tend to write the survivor narrative a lot. It's a more interesting narrative structure, but it's also less used so that can startle readers. Sometimes in good ways? A good example of a survivor narrative structure is TLOK actually.

Another good example of the survivor narrative is Sam Arias' journey in Season 3 of Supergirl. Maybe I'll write an essay someday on it.

13) What's your most important resource as a writer?

There's isn't any one most important resource. I'd say fellow writers and artists is a great resource, lore books is another, random research books (yes, I have a guide to weapons for writers, guide for poisons for writers, guide to x or y for writers, because I'm a nerd like that), the Internet, and lots of listening to others.

14) Can you share some of your strategies for editing and revising your work?

For editing/revising, I start with SPAG: spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Once I do a few run-throughs of that, then I look at the dialogue -- Is the dialogue true to the character's personality and quirks? Can I make the dialogue more succinct?

After that, I look at descriptions: Is the description immersive? Do I utilize the five senses in a concise way? Can I pare down the description while still keeping the immersive quality? Is there any description that doesn't add to the scene or character's growth and can that be moved to a different scene or saved for later?

Finally, I do a fresh read-through and check how it impacts my emotions. Do I laugh at the funny parts? Do I tear up at the sad/angst parts? Does it feel too dry or not emotive enough? What words could be used instead to better invoke emotions?

15) Which is worse: making the summary, picking the tags, or the anxiety when you post your fic?

Ugh, summaries are the worst. Sometimes it's easier to just pick an excerpt of a scene and slap that as the summary. Tags are even worse. I never know what to use for tags, especially since people seem to be kind of random with AO3 tags. I mean, I feel like some writers just will write a statement as a tag and it's amusing but also confusing.

16) How do you define success for your fanfic - hits? Kudos? Comments? Bookmarks? Or just if you like it?

I don't really measure success.

If I get comments from folks that say they're enjoying it? That's a source of joy for me but it's not about success. Because I'm writing mostly for my enjoyment, but to hear that others enjoy it too? Damn, that's like the best news ever. It really helps me feel better about myself and my writing. Like I'm valued and not forgotten. That I actually have an impact. So yeah, go leave comments if you like stuff, please. Us writers love it.

17) Do you have a playlist for your favorite character / ship?

YES. I Always make a playlist for each project I do. I craft it based on their personality, their character arcs, the mood of the piece, and I focus on a variety of genres. I think about the lyrics of songs and try to match it all together. I might spend way more time on playlists than I need, but since I have them playing as I write, I need them to fit the mood and atmosphere to increase inspiration.

18) If fan art was going to be made from your work, which fic would you pick and which fan artist would you like to create it?

Um. Huh. This is a hard question. I try to draw my own, but I can't do color (y'all that do color, are freaking WIZARDS). I think Confession fic and the scene where Lena resurrects Kara, and if and when I have money again, I'd ask @rustingcat if commissions are open for them.

For Korrasami, I'd choose Book 3 or 3.5 but I'm not sure on the artist.

19) How many WIPs do you currently have?

UM. If I count just fanfics, probably fifteen. I'm actively working on six. (Three in each fandom. Two are usually shorter, and one is the longer fic) If we include original fiction and fanfiction? Uhhhhh. Hahahah, that's like twenty-five or so. I'm only working on one original fiction piece set on my SF world of Elivera.

20) What's your advice to new fanfic writers?

Pace yourself and take some time to edit and revise before posting. Also, take some time to review the transcripts and how the characters talk. That can give some fun insight into the characters and ways to expand on them in interesting ways.

Ask questions a lot! There's so many nice folks in the fandom, and folks are so kind about answering questions. I know because I still ask questions and talk to folks about this, and more seasoned writers have been so lovely.

Write what you want. Don't write for your readers (unless someone requests and pays you for a fic, then I guess write for them. lol) but otherwise, write what you want. This is supposed to be fun. If you're getting stressed out, take a break otherwise you will get burned out. To avoid burn out, take time to rest. Read a bit, do fun hobbies, do some practice writing, and then dive back into your fic.

Yes, it's important to try to finish things, but don't feel pressured. Remember, having fun is crucial! It's okay to take your time. Readers will stick with you if they like your tale.

Happy Writing!

P.S. I'm going to quote Brenda Ueland who wrote one of the best books on writing (If You Want to Write):

“Don't always be appraising yourself, wondering if you are better or worse than other writers. "I will not Reason and Compare," said Blake; "my business is to Create." Besides, since you are like no other being ever created since the beginning of Time, you are incomparable. ” - Brenda Ueland

And:

“I want to assure you with all earnestness, that no writing is a waste of time, – no creative work where the feelings, the imagination, the intelligence must work. With every sentence you write, you have learned something. It has done you good. It has stretched your understanding.” - Brenda Ueland

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